Written by Zack Whedon (who co-wrote the "Dr. Horrible" musical with brothers Joss and Jed and Jed's wife, Maurissa Tancharoen), the one-shot "Dr. Horrible" comic tells the tale of Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer's first encounter.

I spoke to Whedon about his plans for the project and received an exclusive preview for Splash Page readers.

"It's a prequel to the web series, and you get to see his first of many embarrassing encounters with Captain Hammer," Whedon said of the 24-page story, which hits shelves November 18. "But the web series is really an origin story too, so this is a little prelude to that."

As regular readers know, Whedon's "Dr. Horrible" story for Dark Horse isn't the first time the project has found its way into the comic book medium.

Last year, we gave you the first look at the "Moist" comic (also written by Whedon), which explored the origins of the "Dr. Horrible" supporting character. Two other comics have been published from the "Dr. Horrible" world, with one focusing on Captain Hammer and the other on Penny, the object of Dr. Horrible's affection.

According to Whedon, every new tale from spun from "Dr. Horrible" gets a close look from the entire "dr. Horrible" creative team.

"I'll write something up, then send it around my various family members and they all sign off on it," he said. "With this comic, I wanted to create something that was just sort of fun in the vein of the series. Part of the joy of the web series is watching Dr. Horrible fail in his attempts to take down Captain Hammer, so this is one of those earlier things."

While Whedon didn't want to spoil the comic ("It's only 24 pages, so that's not a lot to work with," he laughed), he did offer a few details about what readers will learn from the story.

"At one point in the web series, there's a montage of Captain Hammer kicking Dr. Horrible's ass, and this is sort of an expanded version of one of those instances," he said. "It's really his first attempt at being a big-time supervillain."

"Dr. Horrible" hits shelves November 18 from Dark Horse Comics, featuring a story by Zack Whedon, interior art by Joelle Jones and a cover by Kristian Donaldson. You can check out an exclusive preview of "Dr. Horrible" by clicking on the cover image below.

Cover Artist

Splash Page welcomes Ed Tadem to our cover artist family (our custom-designed theme up top). Currently working on the forthcoming "Avengers" animated series, Tadem's work can also be seen in the "Jackie Karma" issues of Image's "'76," and in "Pop Gun, Volume 1." Ed Tadem can be found online at EdTadem.com.